Provincial Task Force meeting: Strategy evolved to cover kids missing anti-polio drops

PESHAWAR: A special strategy has been chalked out to focus on areas having a big chunk of children who had missed the anti-polio drops, said officials at a meeting.

They said this while attending a meeting of the Provincial Task Force Meeting here Monday at Civil Secretariat chaired by Chief Secretary Kazim Niaz.

Member Provincial Assembly and chairperson of the Standing Committee on Health, Rabia Basri, Health Secretary Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah, commissioners, deputy commissioners (virtually), Additional Secretary Health & Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Coordinator, Abdul Basit, Director General Health, Dr Muhammad Niaz, Chief Capital City Police, Ahsan Abbas, EOC Technical Focal Person Dr Imtiaz Ali Shah, Team Lead World Health Organisation, Dr Gedi and other were among the participants.

KP Additional Secretary Health and EOC Coordinator Abdul Basit briefed the meeting about the coverage of the concluding March National Immunisation Day and operational and logistic status of the upcoming polio campaign planned for May 24 in selected districts of the province.

The chief secretary that the provincial EOC was taking measures to guide and support the district emergency operations centre to stop virus circulation and protect every child from the crippling disease.

He appreciated the significant decrease in the polio cases, saying that concerted efforts by the relevant government and partner organizations to stop virus transmission in the

last endemic region was paying off.

Kazim Niaz said the programme was right on track with zero wild poliovirus cases in KP.

He said the polio eradication remained the top priority of the government and would continue to be so till the virus circulation stops and the country succeeds in stamping out the crippling disease from its soil.

The chief secretary directed district administrators and programme staff to utilize all the available resources to ensure successful anti-polio drives in respective districts. He stressed the need for implementation on Covid-19 standard operating procedures while carrying out campaigns and other programme related activities in the field.

He put emphasis on the missed children analysis with a view to ensuring vaccination of all target children who were left out due to various reasons and help the government reach the finish line.

It is pertinent to mention here that Provincial Task Force is the forum which periodically reviews the progress of the Pakistan Polio Programme in the province and take stock of the situation to devise the future roadmap.